A

       
ALIVE (CD)
Leopard Records LCD 122-1, Italy, 1992
1.Roadhouse Blues/ 2.Texas Radio And The Big Beat/ 3.Love He Two Times/ 4.Touch Me/ 5.Horse Latitudes/ 6.Moonlight Drive (cover says Moonlight River)/ 7.The End/ 8.Light My Fire
Sources: All tracks taken from the official Doors video Dance On Fire).
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Another uninteresting and boring CD taken from the official video Dance On Fire. As usual, some tracks are mislabeled: Roadhouse Blues is not from the Hollywood Bowl performance and Moonlight Drive was not taped live at the Jonathan Winters Show but is the original version from the album Strange Days. The soundquality is perfect and the cover is nice and pretty unusual. What else? The colour booklet shows one photo taken by Frank Lisciandro and one by Paul Ferrara. Although "...It Was More Than Twenty Years Ago" (as the back cover legitimates this release) this CD is for the hard core collector only. Just 34 minutes of playing time on a CD is a waste of plastic.



ALL HAIL THE AMERICAN NIGHT (2 CD in digipack)
Tuff Bites T.B. 95.1025, Germany/Luxembourg 1995
Disc One: 1.Alabama Song-Back Door Man/ 2.Texas Radio & The Big Beat/ 3.Love Me Two Times/ 4.The Unknown Soldier/ 5.When The Music's Over 6.Tell All The People/ 7.Alabama Song-Back Door Man/ 8.Wishful Sinful/ 9.Build Me A Woman/ 10.The Soft Parade/ 11.Interview with The Doors by Richard Goldstein
Disc Two: 1.Love Her Madly/ 2.Back Door Man/ 3.Ship Of Fools-Land Ho!/ 4.The Changeling/ 5.L.A.Woman/ 6.When The Music's Over/ 7.The End
Sources: Disc One - 1-5=Copenhagen TV Studio, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 17th, 1968; 6-11=Critique Show, PBS TV, WNET, New York, May 13th, 1969.
Disc Two - 1-6=State Fair Music Hall, Dallas, December 11th, 1970, first show (not complete - The End is missing, it was not taped); track 7= Toronto Popfestival, Varsity Stadium, Toronto, Canada, September 13th, 1969.


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A fine release by Tuff Bites, a company which is known for the characteristic drawings on their covers for their digi-packs. Many of you might already know the Copenhagen and Critique tracks, but even for those people it seems to be worth getting this set. The soundquality of both recordings is excellent, because they were taken from master video copies. The interview is really insightful and the tracks - well, we already know them, but they are still great. Finally, for the first time on CD we have The Doors' Dallas concert, which was never available in good soundquality. But compared to what is out on tape and has partly been published on some inferior vinyl bootlegs and tapes this recording of Dallas is much better than on other sources. Jim's voice never sounded so lonely (especially in L.A.Woman), he makes a few interesting lyrical variations (check Love Her Madly) and The Doors seem to be very tired (just listen to Robby Krieger's guitar). Good to have this concert on CD now. A sad document of the end of The Doors. This is almost the complete concert, just The End played as an encore is missed (I doubt it was ever taped). The bonus track is a great version of The End recorded at the Toronto Popfestival. This song was missing from the CD Toronto Popfestival 1969 Plus Other Rarities (Too Drunk To Fuck TDTF 002). All Hail The American Night is definitely recommended!



AN AMERICAN PRAYER (CD)
Ody 004 AAP 1, Germany 1994
I.Awake: Wake Up/ Ghost Song/ Dawn's Highway/ Newborn Awakening II.To Come Of Age: Black Polished Chrome/ Angels And Sailors/ Stoned Immaculate
III.The Poet's Dreams: The Movie/ Curses, Invocations
IV.World On Fire: American Night/ Roadhouse Blues/ The World On Fire/ Lament/ The Hitchhiker
V.An American Prayer: Hour For Magic/ Freedom Exists/ A Feast Of Friends
Sources: A vinyl copy of the official album Jim Morrison - Music By The Doors, An American Prayer
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It's certainly better to listen to the crackling wood in your fireplace than to put this counterfeit CD into your CD player. Simply avoid this and buy the original Elektra CD of An American Prayer, which certainly is available in your local shop. There is no Elektra logo on the cover or on the CD itself, so you can't be wrong picking up the official release.



AN AMERICAN PRAYER + BONUS TRACK (CD)
Kiss My Ass KMACD 005, Germany 1995
I.Awake: Wake Up/ Ghost Song/ Dawn's Highway/ Newborn Awakening
II.To Come Of Age: Black Polished Chrome/ Angels And Sailors/ Stoned Immaculate
III.The Poet's Dreams: The Movie/ Curses, Invocations
IV.World On Fire: American Night/ Roadhouse Blues/ The World On Fire/ Lament/ The Hitchhiker
V.An American Prayer: Hour For Magic/ Freedom Exists/ A Feast Of Friends
VI.Bonus Track: Mystery Train Medley - People Get Ready/ Baby Please Don't Go/ Mystery Train/ Crossroads (cover says Train Jam)
Sources: I.-V.=A tape copy of the official album Jim Morrison - Music By The Doors, An American Prayer; VI.=Center Coliseum, Seattle, June 5th, 1970.
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At least this counterfeit CD was taken from a tape copy of An American Prayer, which means there are no crackles to be heard (check the Ody 004 AAP 1 counterfeit of the same source). And at least you can easily distinguish between the official release and this counterfeit because of the bonus track. Get Jim's Alive (Tuff Bites T.B. 94.1009) and the official Elektra CD An American Prayer, and you have all tracks in better soundquality. By doing so you do not support counterfeit bootleggers.



AMERICAN PRAYER ALIVE (CD)
Lunatic LU 2004, Germany 1994
1.Roadhouse Blues/ 2.Break On Through/ 3.Light My Fire/ 4.Five To One/ 5.Little Red Rooster/ 6.Who Do You Love/ 7.A Little Game (cover says Go Insane)/ 8.The Hill Dwellers/ 9.People Are Strange/ 10.Love Street/ 11.Love Me Two Times/ 12.The Soft Parade/ 13.Summer's Almost Gone/ 14.Manish Boy.
Sources: Track 1-3= Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame Induction performance with Eddie Vedder on vocals, Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, January 12th,1993; 4= Center Coliseum, Seattle, June 5th, 1970; 5+6= Pacific National Exhibition Coliseum, Vancouver, June 6th, 1970; 7,8,10,11= Konserthuset, Stockholm, September 20th, 1968, first show; 9 and 13= Matrix Club, San Francisco, March 7th, 1967; 12= Critique, PBS TV, WNET, New York, May 13th, 1969; 14= Winterland, San Francisco, December 26th, 1967.


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Everybody seems to have these tracks already on numerous other different CDs. The cover is very unusual, the tray is of clear plastic ... but of course the title of the CD is VERY misleading. Eddie's tracks with The Doors are in excellent quality, by the way. This disc is for the hard core collector only who needs to have everything, worthless for anybody else. I only like the nice CD label itself: It looks like a small VINYL disc (but they use the same design on other artists' CDs, too).



APOCALYPSE NOW (CD)
Kiss The Stone KTS 267, Italy 1994
1.Five To One/ 2.Mack The Knife-Alabama Song/ 3.Back Door Man/ 4.You're Lost Little Girl/ 5.Love Me Two Times/ 6.When The Music's Over/ 7.Wild Child/ 8.Money/ 9.Wake Up-.Light My Fire/ 10.The End/ 11.The Unknown Soldier.
Sources: Tracks 1-10= Konserthuset, Stockholm, September 20th, 1968, entire second show; track 10= same as 1-9, but taken from the first show.


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Oh no, not another Stockholm CD I thought when I got this one. But listening to it I changed my mind: This is the definitive stereo version of the second Stockholm show. The quality is very much better than on all other releases, and if you think The Stockholm Tapes (Document Records DR 010) was good, well, try this one. Perfect! (I still can't get over that very patient Stockholm audience!) Recommended!



ARCHANGEL (CD)
Fun Factory Fun 005, Germany 1993
1.Pipeline/ 2.Queen Of The Magazines/ 3.Mystery Train/ 4.Soft Parade Intro/Whiskey, Mystics And Men/ 5.Love Me Tender/ 6.Someday Soon/ 7.Summertime/ 8.Who Scared You/ 9.Me And The Devil Blues (cover says Woman Is A Devil)/ 10.Rock Is Dead (cover adds Rock Me Baby, but this is not on this CD; also: Rock Is Dead is not complete).
Sources: 1,2,4,5,9 and 10= Studio session for the album The Soft Parade, February 25th, 1969; 3+6= Center Coliseum, Seattle, June 5th, 1970; 7= Matrix Club, San Francisco, March 10th,1967; 8=Original version from LP Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine. Additional overdubbed spoken poetry from Jim Morrison's poetry recording in March 1969, Sunset Sounds Studios, Los Angeles.
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One of the worst CDs in history. Made by the same guy who also produced the awful bootleg CDs The Future Is Murder and Replica Blues, it's the same shit all over again: Another CD. Another 'Live In New Orleans'. Another compilation of what has been published before. Another compilation of what has been mislabeled before. This time it is called Archangel. DON'T BUY THIS RIP-OFF. This CD was not recorded in New Orleans on the very last Doors concert with Jim Morrison as the cover says. This CD was made of a tape distributed by one American Fan, got overdubbed with some poetry from the bootleg CD Orange County Suite (Document Records DR 019) and it is horrible. The soundquality is bad, the intention to rip-off the fans is bad, the cover and the title are bad, and I must say that each CD made by this bootlegger should be avoided by every fan. Each copy you'll buy will give him money to produce another one made of the same material (ehm: 'Live in New Orleans'!). Dear people: THERE IS NO TAPE AND NO CD AVAILABLE RECORDED LIVE IN NEW ORLEANS. Don't buy rip-offs pretending to have tracks on recorded in New Orleans!. I'm really getting mad at bootleggers who put out CDs (or vinyl LPs) just to make money. And this Archangel CD is there to make money. Your money. Keep your money. Again: Like The Future Is Murder and Replica Blues, avoid Archangel like dog's shit. FUCK IT! Get Missing Links (Memorial Records Memorec 403); it's not just better, it's the real thing in good quality with no overdubs and no fake dates.



ARCHIVES (Double CD)
Double Time Disc 002, Italy 1990
Disc One: 1.Alabama Song-Back Door Man/ 2.Texas Radio & The Big Best/ 3.Love Me Two Times/ 4.The Unknown Soldier/ 5.When The Music's Over/ 6.The End/ 7.Wild Child/ 8.Touch Me/ 9.Light My Fire
Disc Two: 1.Tell All The People/ 2.Alabama Song-Back Door Man/ 3.Wishful Sinful/ 4.Build Me A Woman/ 5.The Soft Parade/ 6.Interview with The Doors/ 7.Hello I Love You 8.Summer's Almost Gone/ 9.End Of The Night/ 10.Moon- light Drive/ 11.My Eyes Have Seen You/ 12.Insane (cover says Not To Touch The Earth)
Sources: Disc One - 1-5=TV Studio, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 17th, 1968); 6= Now Explosion CBC TV Show, O'Keefe Centre, Toronto, Canada, August 8th, 1967; 7+8=Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Los Angeles, December 4th, 1968; 9= Ed Sullivan Show, New York, September 17th, 1967.
Disc Two - 1-6=Critique Show, PBS TV, WNET, May 13th, 1969; 7-12= Demo Acetate, World Pacific Studios, Los Angeles, September 2nd, 1965.
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Subtitle of this double bootleg CD is "The Best Live In Concert 1966-1969", but there is no song from 1966 and everybody knows there are many discs out which are much better than this compilation. Well, for those who have got all the common bootleg CDs this one is quite useless. The quality is worse than on all other CDs, but still quite acceptable, although all tracks were taken from vinyl copies. The bootleggers took the cover of the vinyl bootleg Archives, but the content of this double CD has got no relations to the vinyl having the same title.



AUTUMN LIFE - LIVE AT THE MATRIX 1967 (CD)
Living Legend Records LLR CD 003, Italy 1988
1.People are Strange/ 2.Alabama Song/ 3.Crystal Ship/ 4.Twentieth Century Fox/ 5.Moonlight Drive 6.Summer's Almost Gone/ 7.Unhappy Girl/ 8.Back Door Man/ 9.My Eyes Have Seen You/ 10.Soul Kitchen/ 11.Get Off My Life/ 12.Crawling King Snake/ 13.I Can't See Your Face In My Mind
Sources: Matrix Club, San Francisco, March 7th, 1967, first and second set. Same tracks as on Crawling King Snakes (Back Trax CD 04-88004), but in slightly better soundquality.
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This was one of the first Doors CD bootlegs. Although there are the same tracks as on Crawling King Snakes, this was copied from a tape, not from a vinyl disc. But besides the fine cover art, there is nothing special about Autumn Life.


© 1998 Rainer Moddemann, The Doors Quarterly Magazine. This guide may not be distributed in any other context or media.